A Super-Giant Offshore Field Development Plan Change from Steel Structures to Artificial Islands

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Abstract The offshore giant oil field covers an aerial extent of approximately 1200 square kilometers. The field development to date has been based on pattern producer and water injection wells drilled from numerous Well Head Platform Towers (WHPT's) located through-out the field; these are connected via subsea pipelines to satellite platforms and an in-field central complex. The field operator has a mandate to increase the production rate by 40% in the near future. If the current steel platform development plan were to be continued, numerous new WHPT's, additional thousands of kilometers of subsea pipelines, and significant facilities upgrades on existing satellites and the central processing platform would be required. The increasing complexity and cost of such an expansion motivated a major change of the development plan through construction of artificial islands and use of extended reach and long horizontal completions. The location of the field in water-depths ranging from 5 to 15 meters, allows cost effective construction of artificial islands. Also favoring application of artificial islands for the subject field is its long expected operating life (nearly 100 years) that exceeds the life of the existing steel platforms. The island concept provides enormous flexibility in managing future subsurface and surface uncertainties. The islands-based development will provide a low cost foundation for phased installation of facilities and allow space for future requirements, such as facilities for Artificial Lift, Gas Injection and other EOR applications. In short, for the case presented, artificial islands as drilling/production centers provide the following advantages:Provisions for cost-effective/phased facilities installationsEnhanced field operability, at lower OPEXReduced downtime lossesFlexibility to capture up-side potentials during field life cycleEnhance possibilities for future EOR applicationSignificant development cost reduction In conclusion, where environmentally and economically viable, building artificial islands as drilling and production centers, offers numerous advantages over steel-base structures, which could even justify island construction within existing brown field infrastructures. Introduction The field is located 84 km offshore Abu Dhabi, as shown in Figure 1. It was discovered in the early 1960's and covers an aerial extent of approximately 1200 square kilometers. A simplified field cross section is shown in Figure 2.